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Hit Piece . . . one, two

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I've written many posts on the subject of Christian Fiction, publishing the genre, the "rules" and "regulations" of meeting the "standards" of traditional Christian fiction, self-publishing (or "vanity"/independent), and the overall trials and decisions experienced in the writing/authoring arena of Christian literature. 

Steve Laube posted this article on Monday (09/10/18) regarding the CBA (Christian Booksellers Association):

https://stevelaube.com/rumbles-in-cba/

It's not a "hit piece" by Mr. Laube but rather a thought provoking general composite of Christian retail today.

Okay, here comes the "hit piece" via my thoughts on the declining Christian retail market "on the ground" which in my area is non-existent – where there used to be six Christian bookstores within easy access.

Speaking from a retail standpoint, here we go (and from a fiction purview).

Number One: Too expensive. When you can buy the book online (including shipping) cheaper than you can drive to the store and purchase it, where do you think many shoppers will go to purchase it? When you see literally 20 copies each of certain authors' novels and can't find one of another author's several publications, where will shoppers go to purchase it? When there are so many paintings, vases, stickers, knickknacks, jewelry, etc. expanding to the point where book tables and shelves are diminishing, where will shoppers go to purchase books? Where there are an inordinate amount of non-fiction books compared to very few novels, where will the fiction reader shop? 

Number Two: One of the worst retail practices I've ever heard of which is prevalent in Christian bookselling (and perhaps general marketing – I don't know) is allowing retailers to return books if they don't sell – even when ordered by the retailer. This fosters a complete lack of accountability by retail management and puts authors in a hard place regarding their sales/earnings/royalties' projections. Some stores accept returned books by consumers who "didn't like" the book after reading it! No. Retail is a tough, tough business, and usually it's the business with great customer service that survives provided the product is good. But even tough customers who know the "rules" of purchasing in a particular store will abide by those when treated well and fairly.

Point of Contention: Retailers must decide whether or not they're going to be a bookstore or some combination of books and sundries. Both can work, but the prices must be competitive with the online market or an outstanding coffee bar better occupy the same space to support the place.

Question: Why do traditional publishers sell their Kindle (and other e-reader) books for such an exorbitant price?

Tomorrow we'll discuss the rise of indie publishing and the associated complaints regarding the traditional Christian publishers.   

 

Father, you improve everything if we give you the reins of our lives. Help us to listen and obey. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

 

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10 responses to “Hit Piece . . . one, two”

  1. BK Jackson Avatar
    BK Jackson

    I haven’t read Laube’s article.
    RE: Physical bookstores, Christian or otherwise: This is something that is a true conflict for me. I love the IDEA of a physical bookstore, & back when I didn’t have better options many years ago, I was regularly in one. Now I go in B&N maybe twice a year if that.
    That’s for several reasons. I do find the non-book related stuff annoying, but can get past that. However, as you mentioned, books are hugely overpriced. They don’t stop to consider that the dollar value on everything has skyrocketed—EXCEPT for people’s paychecks. That remains paltry. So when faced with the choice of paying $13 for a book or paying the rent or having food on the table, food & rent win.
    It makes me feel bad for the authors too. JA Jance’s Joanna Brady series is one of the most engaging I have read in a very long time but those books (even Kindle versions) are like $10-$12. And holy cow–her latest release is on Amazon for $15 Kindle and $28 paper! If they would just boost my salary by about 50% in keeping with these rising costs, that’d be different.
    The other thing though is time and search engines. I simply don’t have time to go to a physical bookstore. Sure, you could order online & have it delivered, but their search engines SUCK. Amazon has them beat a country mile in the search engine department.
    I don’t understand the returns policy either. And especially not the policy of allowing a reader to return a book. What’s so hard about the “you bought it, it’s yours” policy. It’s one thing to have a warranty on a car, but a book? Oye.
    If something happens to Amazon, I’ll have no choice but to figure out another way. Until then, I’ve absolutely no time or interest in the added hassles & expense of a physical book store. Sad but true.

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  2. Nicole Petrino-Salter Avatar
    Nicole Petrino-Salter

    You mentioned JA Jance’s Kindle books – as much as I’ve enjoyed the few that I’ve read, I’m not paying the exorbitant price listed for them. Or for any other of my favorite authors. If I’m going to spend that kind of money on a book, I’ll just buy the hardbound copy.
    I do go to the B&N to buy the new hardbound VinceFlynn/KyleMills books because I want a lasting copy of them, but beyond that I generally don’t go except maybe at Christmastime.
    And I don’t even mind the non-book stuff EXCEPT that much of it is also overpriced.
    Seriously, we had six Christian bookstores in my general area and now we have zero! To me that sort of points to mismanagement and/or no way to compete.

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  3. BK Jackson Avatar
    BK Jackson

    That “how to compete” part is a tough one. I have no answers. I think a lot depends on what happens with libraries too. I’m guessing 75% of my reading is done via e-books borrowed from my public digital library. But with shrinking city budgets a common threat, there’s always a possibility that could put the squeeze on reading habits too.

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  4. Brenda S. Anderson Avatar
    Brenda S. Anderson

    The book return policy is across all booksellers. The policy actually began in the late 1800s following the Newsies strike (as is seen in the musical Newsies.) Here’s a quote from Wikepedia:
    “On August 1, 1899, the World and Journal offered the newsboys a compromise: the price of a hundred papers would remain at 60¢, but they would buy back any unsold papers.”
    So that’s where it began.
    I only know this because I saw a local Newsies production then I had to find out the true story. 🙂
    As for the decline of the physical bookstore, you hit on a lot of the reasons. We used to have Christian bookstores, used bookstores, Borders, B&N … now we just have a B&N. The closest Lifeway is a half hour away, so I’m not making that trek just to see if they have a book I want on their shelves. I’m not a fan of Lifeway anyway — they bought out a local Christian chain and it hasn’t been the same. And the fiction section is very shrinking. But I blame that on church people who don’t read fiction–which I don’t get at all! Jesus was a storyteller!

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  5. Nicole Petrino-Salter Avatar
    Nicole Petrino-Salter

    There is a huge assessment needed to be able to compete because now in the book world it’s about competing with the giant Amazon. My state (Wa.) is not business-friendly. The L&I (Labor&Industries) is a cash cow (and corrupted), the B&O taxes exorbitant, and real estate prices/taxes/leases keep rising so for a small-business owner to survive in this western Washington atmosphere it takes a lot of money. Those factors tend to negate an investment in selling books at a competitive level.
    Having said that, to compete in the bookselling business you need access to a large warehousing system so the volume of books purchased can be accomplished at lower prices to make it possible to price them competitively for retail purchasing. And you need to know exactly who and what you want to buy to sell – how much variety, how much of one author, etc.
    People who love to read usually enjoy spending time perusing books. To be able to create the atmosphere for that in a store varies according to the business owners’ desire for their shop. Me? I’d want rows and rows of books with only a couple of seating areas and, yes, probably a small coffee/tea/smoothie/pastry bar in the back which is conducive to lingering. I wouldn’t be opposed to selling cards and calendars, but beyond that, not so much. And as I’ve stated before the sign will be prominent which says, “You buy it, you own it.” And that policy would be explained at the sales counter as well.

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  6. Nicole Petrino-Salter Avatar
    Nicole Petrino-Salter

    Thank you for that clarification, Bren. I wondered how/when that originated.
    Yes, we used to have a large mall store of Borders and I actually preferred them to B&N even though they’re both similar. I didn’t care for Lifeway either, and the only time I went to the one in our area was when J. Mark Bertrand was there for a book signing. I’d had a meeting with him in Seattle when he was teaching at Seattle Pacific during the summer so it was good to see him again and meet his wife who accompanied him on that trip.
    I wonder how much the CBA contributed to the demise of Christian bookstores . . . or if they did at all. As you noted – and it didn’t seem to be particular to Lifeway – fiction was being eased out or down in numbers and limited to certain primary authors and genres which chased away a lot of us and forced us to Amazon and eventually indie publishing. In the end Christian bookstores served a very limited and specific audience of readers. And now they’re almost gone.

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  7. BK Jackson Avatar
    BK Jackson

    I don’t think it’s just Christian bookstores. To me there were never that many Christian bookstores anyway (yes, I know Lifeway is a chain, but apart from them, who?).
    Bookstores are, by design, for grazers (browsers), who maybe don’t know what they want when they go in–they just want to go in & grab something that strikes them right. For people like me, who are very targeted and specific, they don’t work. I’m not just talking about fiction. I have very specific, targeted interests in non-fiction. Take history for example–you’re going to tend to find general histories in various categories at a store. They don’t drill down (and can’t) into specifics on those categories.
    That is ultimately why I quit going to bookstores–what’s the point in going if 95% of the time, they don’t have anything you want?
    I DO, however, go to Half Priced Bookstore a few more times a year than B&N, because they are far more likely to have depth in their categories in addition to used books–because some of the categories I read, some of the prime titles are out of print because they were published a while ago.
    In short, I’m not the type of customer that’s ideal for them to build their business model around. LOL!

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  8. Nicole Petrino-Salter Avatar
    Nicole Petrino-Salter

    There actually were several chains of Christian bookstores, Brenda, but it’s irrelevant now because many of them have either closed down or reduced their stores to their original areas.
    However, they clearly didn’t meet your specific needs/criteria unless of course biblically historical books were your forte.
    I know the last time I went to B&N they were very accommodating. They didn’t have the specific novel I was looking for but they ordered it for me and mailed it directly to my home which was cool. And I bought Brad Thor’s latest there which is where I go to get his and Flynn’s/Mill’s hardcovers on their days of release. (Flynn/Mills’ latest Red War is due out on the 25th of this month.)

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  9. BK Jackson Avatar
    BK Jackson

    The Lifeway store in my area took over a store called “Berean”–I’m not sure if that was a chain store or not. You got me curious & I looked it up–Lifeway is still there.

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  10. Nicole Petrino-Salter Avatar
    Nicole Petrino-Salter

    I believe Berean had a small chain of Christian bookstores. There were also Christian Supply, Family Christian, and some smaller local chains in assorted states.

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